"If the CIA -- the director of central intelligence -- had said 'Take this out of the speech,' it would have been gone," Rice said. "We have a high standard for the president's speeches."
Asked whether Bush still had confidence in the intelligence agency, Rice replied, "Absolutely."
When queried on reports that the CIA expressed concern to the White House about the allegation, she suggested that Tenet should be asked directly. "I'm not blaming anyone here," Rice said.
Let's parse Condi!
"If the CIA -- the director of central intelligence" -- Notice how the acrobatic Condi re-spins in mid-sentence: it wouldn't have been just the CIA who needed to say "Take this out" (sounds like they said to, actually) but George Tenet himself. Right
"Absolutely" -- Bush has confidence... in Tenet to take the bullet for him!
"I'm not blaming anyone here" -- LOL!
"It would have been gone" -- Condi is very careful to use the passive voice. All the reporting about how The Smoking Sentence got into the State of the Union speech does that too.
Condi! Try some honesty! Instead of "It would have been gone" say "X would have taken it out." Who is X? Who had the responsibility? Where does the buck stop? What did he know, and when did he know it?
UPDATE: AP slow, but finally starting to get it:
The Bush administration is engaged in frantic fingerpointing as it tries to explain how its handling of faulty intelligence on allegations of Iraqi nuclear smuggling produced so few red flags.
Get some popcorn!